Another look at the announcements of TV schedules for each team in anticipation of the NHL season:

The Kings have joined a not-large-enough-yet group of teams that broadcast all their games in HD. Er, at least all the ones that are on TV. 65 Kings games will air on FS West HD. It’s assumed that three other games will air on FS Prime Ticket as Ducks telecasts, and an additional VERSUS game against the Blackhawks early in the season. However, the fact that the NHL’s franchise in the 2nd largest American market will have 13 games unavailable to viewers is pretty unacceptable. Still, good for the Kings fans who love the HD.

Meanwhile, the Washington Capitals will air 79 games on TV. Strangely, none of the games off TV have anything to do with VERSUS’ game of the week exclusivity. Come on NHL teams, stop being so lazy and find someone to air these leftover games. The Blackhawks showed us all that having 82 games on TV doesn’t affect attendance… or something.

80 Calgary Flames games will air on Sportsnet West, CBC, TSN and the team’s pay-per-view service, which will air 10 games. I’ve always wanted to see a game in a movie theater, which is what many of the Canadian teams that do pay-per-view air the games on. But 10 seems like a little bit much.

Each week for the rest of the off-season on Mondays, we’ll point you to each NHL team’s regional TV schedule as it comes out.

The Avalanche are first out of the gate, and with it comes news that they’ve significantly reduced the role of radio color analyst Norm Jones, who’s being scaled back due to budget cuts. However, the Avs do have all 82 games on TV (one of our big rules about local TV coverage) and all of them will be in high definition on owner Stan Kroenke’s Altitude network.

For a team in such a great hockey market, it’s pretty flabbergasting as to why the Minnesota Wild don’t have all 82 games on TV. 77 will make it to air on FS North, independent station KSTC-45 and ABC affiliate 5 Eyewitness News (plus VERSUS).

The Blue Jackets will also hit the 77 game total, combining FS Ohio and VERSUS. Let’s just hope their new reporters and studio hosts don’t be too negative Nancy on them.

The Leafs will have all 82 games aired across Sportsnet, CBC, TSN and Leafs TV (in order of games televised). The Habs have all 82 on RDS in French. Why don’t the Habs produce an english broadcast?